This disclosure relates generally to the field of video capture, and more particularly, to exposure metering while acquiring timelapse video.
The advent of portable integrated computing devices has caused a wide proliferation of cameras and video devices. These integrated computing devices commonly take the form of smartphones or tablets and typically include general purpose computers, cameras, sophisticated user interfaces including touch sensitive screens, and wireless communications abilities through WiFi, LTE, HSDPA and other cell-based or wireless technologies. The wide proliferation of these integrated devices provides opportunities to use the device's capabilities to perform tasks that would otherwise require dedicated hardware and software. For example, as noted above, integrated devices such as smartphones and tablets typically have one or two embedded cameras. These cameras generally amount to lens/camera hardware modules that may be controlled through the general purpose computer using firmware and/or software (e.g., “Apps”) and a user interface including the touch-screen fixed buttons and touchless control such as voice control.
The integration of cameras into communication devices such as smartphones and tablets has enabled people to share images and videos in ways never before possible. It is now very popular acquire and immediately share photos with other people by either sending the photos via text message, SMS, or email, or by uploading the photos to an internet-based website, such as a social networking site or a photosharing site.
It is desirable in some circumstances to capture video for very long periods of time, spanning a period from several minutes up to several days, and to speed up the playback of those videos so that the viewer can see all the action that took place in a short span of time, say twenty to forty seconds. This is often referred to as a timelapse video. Thus, methods of dramatically speeding up playback of a timelapse video, while still producing video having a pleasing look, are needed.